Card stacking device



May 26, 1970 G. GATT! CARD STACKING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 16, 1967 Alm v. uif ifi is I M 3 "r May 26, 1970 Filed Oct. 16, 1967 G. GATT] CARD STACKING DEVICE 2 SheetsSheet 2 GIANCARLO GA TTI INVENTOR.

/1 v.5) W9 @V w United States Patent Int. CLB65h 31/00 US. Cl. 271-86 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A device for the collection of punched cards and similar documents comprising guiding means conveniently shaped for controlling the bending of the cards and input means comprising a deflecting lever and a stop pawl.

The present invention relates to devices for collecting punched cards and similar documents in stacking compartments after they have been read and eventually sorted, these devices being part of data processing equipment.

In the equipment under consideration, the punched cards, or similar documents, are directed to predetermined stacking compartments where they are collected in regular and orderly decks so that they may subsequently be easily removed and handled for further processing. Since the cards enter the stacking compartment at high speed, at relatively short intervals, it is necessary to avoid having the trailing edge of a card, which is stopped as a result of its entering the compartment, from being struck by the leading edge of the following card which is moving at considerable speed.

In prior art devices, jets of compressed air suitably oriented have been used to remove the trailing edge of a preceding card from the path of the following card. Such a system is subject to several disadvantages, particularly, high cost and the complications resulting from the necessity of providing a relatively complex device for generating, controlling and distributing said compressed air.

A device made according to the invention obviates such inconveniences, the trailing edge of each card being moved out of the path of the leading edge of the following card, at the moment when the card is stopped, by the combined action of a deflecting lever cooperating with a stop pawl, and a number of curved guide rails controlling the bending of the card caused by its sudden stopping.

These and other features of the invention will appear from the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment thereof, taken in conjunction with the attached drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a card reading and sorting apparatus, on which the device according to the invention is mounted.

FIG. 2 is a view of the stacking device taken along lines II-II of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a view of the stacking device taken along lines III-III of FIG. 1.

With reference to FIG. 1, showing a serial card reader, the cards to be processed, set in hopper 1, are read by a reading device not shown and then moved along proximate the path shown by arrows 2 and 2a to the stacking compartments 3 or 3a through the slots 4 or 4a. Proximate point 5, the cards to be stacked in compartment 4 are selected from those to be stacked in compartment 4a. The bottom of said compartments, indicated by the numeral 7, is formed of a smooth plate having an inclination of about to the horizontal. Each stacking compartment is delimited at the back by a number of guide 3,514,101 Patented May 26, 1970 "ice rails 8 and 8a, and in front, by a sliding plate on which the collected cards are deposited.

In the following description, the terms front and rear, upper and lower, right and left will be used, referring to an observer located in front of the side on which the command panel 10 is mounted and turned toward the apparatus.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are respectively a view of the stacking device along the direction IIII of FIG. 1 and a view, orthogonal to the first one, along the direction III-III of FIG. 1.

A pair of driving rollers 11, co-operating with a pair of pressure rollers, are rotated at constant speed in the direction shown by the arrow, through the action of motor means, not shown in the figure.

The card 13, pressed between said rollers, is moved at suitable speed toward the right into the stacking compartment 8 passing the two stop pawls 15 and the deflecting lever 18.

The stop pawls 15 are shaped so that they can be easily rotated clockwise through a small angle by the leading edge 17 of the card 13 in its movement toward the right, overcoming the action of the springs 16. At a small distance from said pawls a deflecting lever 18 is kept in the position shown by the action of spring 19. This spring 19 is relatively weak and its action may be easily overcome by the edge 17 of card 13, as the card is pressed toward the rear side by the two pawls 15. The deflecting lever 18, under the action of the card, rotates counterclockwise through a small angle, without substantially diverting the edge 17 of the card 13 from its rectilinear path.

The bottom plate 30 of the receiving station 8 has an opening 31 from which part of a conical wormgear 22 projects into the stacking compartment. Said conical worrngear is kept rotating, in the sense indicated by the arrow, by motor means not shown. The top side of the stacking compartment is open.

On the rear side, the stacking compartment is limited by three guide rails 32 whose front edges have a curved portion with a large radius of curvature. 0n the front side, the compartment is variably limited by a collecting plate 35, mounted on a sliding support 23, and hinged thereto by means of pin 34, so as to permit the collecting plate to be rotated upwards.

The sliding support 23 can move in back-to-front direction along a guiding bar 27, and the component of its weight in said direction is compensated by a spring 25 wound around a roller 26 having one extremity fastened to a fixed point 28 and the other extremity hooked to the sliding support 23 at point 24.

Therefore, as the cards pile up on the collecting plate 35, the increase in thickness of the deck thus formed causes the collecting plate 35 to move forward increasing the space at disposal of the stack of cards.

The transverse length of the stacking compartment is somewhat larger than the length of the cards, and is limited at the right by a pad 20 of resilient material such as foam rubber or the like.

The conical wormgear 22 is preferably formed of two separate parts joined together, the rear part 29 along the axial length, corresponding to about a pitch, is made of rigid material, as for example nylon, whereas the front part 33 is made of flexible metallic sheet, smoothly connected to the rear part and terminates with a large flat circular appendix. The rear part, having a smaller diameter, hardly projects from the opening 31 into the stacking compartment whereas the larger front part reaches about the half of the height of the same.

The operation of the device is as follows:

When a card 13 is moved by the two pairs of cooperating rollers 11 and 12 to the right, its right edge 17 rotates the stop pawls 15 and moves to the right, causing the deflecting lever 18 to rotate against the action of the spring 19. When about three-quarters of the cards length has passed pawls 15, it is approximately at the points indicated by 32 against the curved guide rails 21, and is deflected toward'the front. Shortly thereafter, the right edge 17 strikes the resilient pad 20 which stops its movement. In this position its left edge has released the pawls 15 which return to their rest position as shown in the figure, and the deflecting lever 18 which is subject to the action is rotated clockwise by spring 19.

As a consequence of the inertia and the elasticity of the card, as well as the deviation caused at point 32 to its leading edge, the card bends following the shape of rails 21, as shown by the dashed line 13a. As a result of this, and the push imparted to its left-most end by the deflecting lever 18, the left edge, as soon as it has passed the pawls 15, is rapidly removed from the path of the right edge of the followingcard.

Successively, the card rebounds to the left, straightening itself because of its natural elasticity, and takes the approximate position shown by the dash-and-dotted line 13b. In this backward motion the left edge may strike the pawls at point 13c. Because of the slanted profile of the pawls, the edge is pushed toward the front. The lower edge of the card then falls in the range of action of the conical wormgear.

The rear part of the wormgear acts on the lower edge of the card and pushes it against the plate 35. As the rotation of the wormgear continues, the increasing diameter of the wormgear acts on a larger portion of the card until, after about two revolutions, its large flat terminal part lays the card down on the deck of the already deposited cards, thereby causing a small displacement of the plate toward the front of the stacking compartment.

The sense of rotation of the wormgear is such that the friction between the card and the large flat terminal part generates a weak force against the left at the moment of the deposition. This push is adequately counterbalanced 4 by a weak inclination to the right of the collecting plate 35.

The weight of the card deck deposited on the collector plate 33 has a component in the direction of the guiding bar 27 along which the said plate may slide. This weight component, dependent upon the number of cards deposited, is adequately counterbalanced by the friction between the deck and the lower smooth plate, which also depends on the thickness of the card stack in such a way that, in any position and for any number of cards deposited on said plate, it is in neutral equilibrium with respect to the forces acting on it. The process of deposition of a card is therefore completely unaffected by the number of cards which are already stacked on the plate, and the cards set themselves in a perfectly regular and orderly deck which can be easily taken out and handled.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for stacking documents including a pocket, a collector plate in said pocket, an entry port in one side of said pocket, guide means having a straight portion adjacent said entry port and an arcuate portion having a large radius of curvature remote from said entry port, said guide means being spaced apart from said collector plate, a resilient member secured to a sidewall of said pocket opposite the sidewall containing said entry port, pivoted pawl means having a portion thereof extending across said entry port and having its free end positioned toward said guide means and a pivoted deflection lever, said deflection lever being proximate said entry port and having its free end positioned inward of said pocket and beyond the normal straight line path of a document being fed through said entry port.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,052,468 9/1962 Cutaia 27l87 X EDWARD A. SROKA, Primary Examiner 

